Thursday, 28 December 2017

As the year 2017 gradually comes
to an end and plans are in high gear to usher in the New Year 2018, one of the
things I know that most people do in preparation for a New Year is make New
Year resolutions and set goals for the New Year.

For me, this is usually a time to
step back and retreat and seek the face of the Father on what is in His heart
at this point in His season of life. God works in seasons and those seasons
usually do not necessarily follow our calendar years so an understanding of the
heart of the Father will aid a child of God walk right with Him.

The Lord drew my attention to a
passage in the book of Romans 8:5;

For those who live according to
the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live
according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

So as you prepare and plan for
the New Year, I have a question for you. If I look at your goals and plans for
the New Year and gauge them, will I confirm that you live by the Spirit or
according to the flesh?

For those who live according to
the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh…

Mind you, the flesh is in
constant enmity with God. So anything that does not bring you closer to God but
draws you away from Him is flesh.

I want you to think on these
things and adjust your plans/life accordingly.

Monday, 11 December 2017

I love Christmas, I can’t say for
sure exactly why I love it, but I do. My wife has even made it a more
interesting season for me with all the drama around decorations and carols et
al and like the good student I am, I am catching the bug quickly and every year
has been better than the last. Even when I try to dull her, it is never a dull
moment with Meemeesola.

Okay, this post is not about my
wife and how much I love her though I am sure you know that already.

One of the things I love about
Christmas is that it is a season when you don’t have to prompt people a lot to
do good. People are more willing to give both to charity and to friends and
even enemies as well. There is that giving grace during the Christmas season.

This year for some reason I decided
to pray about what God will have us give this period. I had some plans in mind
as giving back to my community is up there in my list of priorities. I am one
of those people that believe that the body of Christ should be assisting ease
the burden on society in the areas of quality education, health, accommodation and
feeding. If we can’t make it free (which I don’t see why we can’t), we should at
least make it as subsidized as possible. On a later day, maybe I will share my
plans around this and you are free to chat me up privately and I can share my
thoughts on this.

But as I prayed along those
lines, God pointed me to a scripture and asked me to be guided by that. I know
most of us have amazing plans for this period and some of us have even
commenced executing those plans. But as you do and go ahead in life, I will
like you to read this scripture, meditate on it and keep it at the fore front
of your mind in all your giving and doing good.

I pray that the Lord will expand
this scripture in your hearts and open the eyes of your understanding to see
what is in the heart of the Father, Amen!

Matthew 6:1-4(NKJV)

1“Take heed that you do not do your charitable
deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your
Father in heaven. 2Therefore, when you do your charitable deed, do not sound a
trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their
reward. 3But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what
your right hand is doing, 4that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your
Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly".

Thursday, 16 November 2017

I love Jesus and have made
following Him my life’s work. As fun and amazing as it has been, it has also
been an interesting journey.

I know various things brought us
to Jesus. For some it was a promise of a mansion in heaven, for some the
solution to their problems, for some divine healing, provisions etc. bottom
line, we all came to Jesus through various routes but by one Spirit. And per
adventure you are reading this and you are yet to give your life to Jesus, I
want to invite you to open up your heart to Him today, He stands at the door of
your heart and is very willing to come in if only you will invite Him in and
profess Him with your mouth as Lord and Saviour over your soul.

I thought to encourage someone
today. Someone who is in Christ and has been steadfast in Him. You have prayed
and studied the word and given your tithe (no matter what some may think
#topicforanotherday) and given offerings. You may have also in addition to all
of these sown seeds and blessed you man of God and done good to both the needy
and the poor. Never missing hospital/prison visitations, always in church for
all church meetings, always available to serve in one capacity or the other
whenever/wherever required. But still things don’t seem to be what they should
be. You find yourself struggling to have your basic needs met. Things that
should come easy are constantly a prayer point. The only reason you haven’t
lashed out at God yet is because you have the fear of God in you. For some, you
have even lashed out at Him but yet it seems nothing has changed.

From time to time, you receive
this warm assurance in your heart that things will be fine and you make the confessions
that ‘all things are working out for my good’ even when a part of you doesn’t
completely see how that is even possible. You are still here and barely just
hanging on.

If you find yourself in any of
the categories I mentioned above or maybe I didn’t mention your case but you
can relate with what I am saying, I want to share a scripture with you and
encourage you today;

1Peter 5:10

But may the God of all grace, who
called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a
while, perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you.

I want you to know that our walk
in Christ comes with a measure of suffering. But the good news is that after
you have suffered but for a while, my God will Perfect (ie make completely free
from faults or defect, having all required or desirable
elements/qualities/characteristics; as good as you can possibly be), establish
(ie set up on a firm or permanent basis, achieving permanent
acceptance/recognition), strengthen (ie make or become stronger, reinforce,
buttress, toughen, intensify, heighten, fortify, bolster, vitalize) and settle
(ie reach an agreement, pay a debt, adopt a more steady/secure style of life,
sit or come to rest in a comfortable position) you.

You are coming out of this just
the way the Master wants you to be. So hold on and stand firm in faith. Resist
the devil and he will flee from you.

Saturday, 28 October 2017

A couple of days ago, a scary
event occurred in my life and though I could have written about it on the same
day, I took a few days to write this piece because I knew there was way much
more in the event than just the occurrence in its self.

I was at the bus stop on a rainy
morning waiting to join the staff bus to work. I had called the driver to
notify him that I was waiting and had just stood for what seemed like a few
seconds and that was all I could remember. One minute I was standing at the bus
stop, the next minute I was back in my house drenched in water and sand.

I have read stories of people dying
and seeing white light at the end of a long tunnel and all that stuff, but that
wasn’t the case here. I collapsed at the bus stop and I have no recollection
whatsoever what transpired in that blank out period.

I thank God for my wife, for Tosin,
my family everyone who made it easier for us on that day. My God will reward you
for me.

As I lay in the MRI machine and
was being examined, I couldn’t shake off the thought that if this had been my
last day on earth and the Father was examining me to see if I completed the
work that He sent me to do, what would be His conclusion?

Apostle Paul’s words to Timothy
in 2 Tim 4:6-7 flashed on my mind and stayed there; “For I am already being poured
out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought
the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”.

He knew! He knew that he had done
his job and that he did it well. He knew that he had finished his race. He could
see his crown of righteousness. He could hear the well done My son. He was
handing over to the next generation of guys that will take the world because he
knew his time was up. He knew!

But I didn’t know.

Though still in the race, I had
strayed off the course. I was pursing business, career and acquisitions and
things that actually don’t matter to my Father nor the Kingdom. I was pursuing
status and prestige the things that make you stand out in this earth that is
passing away. I was pursuing vain knowledge of the systems of the world with no
proper grasp of how our Kingdom works. I look around me and I also see men,
people even churches pursing the same things. How to master the systems of this
world with no idea whatsoever how the Kingdom of our Father works. Forgetting that
though we are in this world, we are not of this world.

Apostle Paul was saying that
there are things that he knew that were not lawful for him to utter. If you read
the things he wrote, you will know the guy knew what he was talking about. He had
learnt the ways of the Kingdom.

God had to take my life briefly
to shake me into this reality.

You don’t have to die to know
that you are not fulfilling purpose. Right now sitting or standing or lying
where you are reading this post, you know whether or not you are accomplishing
heaven’s mandate for you. YOU KNOW!

Please don’t get me wrong, this
is not a cry for evangelism or any of those activities (that may be a part of
it if that’s what your purpose here on earth is), this is a call to personal
evaluation especially for believers who profess Christ Jesus as their Lord and
Master.

I have over the last couple of
days experienced a weakness in my body but yet such strength and resolve in my
spirit to get it right and get it right I will.

I also learnt that life will go
on. People may mourn your passing for a little while, but life will go on. The office
will not shut down, at best one minute silence to recognize the dead (during
which some people will still be sending emails) but that’s it, life will still
go on.

So spend time with the people you
love who love you. Reach out to the people who hate you and surprise them. Help
someone who has no capacity whatsoever to return the favour. Live life today
with no worry about tomorrow because tomorrow is not a guarantee. Actually,
sufficient for today are the evil thereof. Know this, your Father in heaven has
an idea of ALL the things you will possibly need and has made provisions for
them all. All you need do is to ensure that you are walking in the path of His
purpose for your life and you will meet His provisions on that path. You only
struggle when you are off course.

So I leave you with this
question; DO YOU KNOW YOUR PURPOSE ON
EARTH AND IF YOU DO, ARE YOU LIVING IT?

Wednesday, 11 October 2017

I had an interesting conversation
with my mum some nights ago and its plain disturbing the direction things are
heading to.

They have a target to double
their number (ie attendance per service meeting) within a specific time and the
leader in their region was offering financial reward every month for the
individual(s) that bring the most number of people to church every month. My
mum who is also a regional leader spoke up against this and it almost turned
into a war of words.

I share insights with her
whenever we have the opportunity to have those our very long talks and its fun
sharing Jesus with your mum (some ladies will now come and want to bring their
daddy into this discussion now lol). And as the years go by, we are beginning
to agree on most of those things I have been pointing out to her about religion
and denomination and the rot it is causing in the body of Christ.

From what I gather, some of the
pastors have begun to doctor their books in order to meet up with this target.
Everyone that came for first service is counted as part of the headcount for
second service and combined you have a huge number #ridiculous.

Attendance in house fellowship
meetings, eatery hangouts, even people that read the sign posts are tagged as
‘members’ of the church to meet up with ‘target’.

I paused at this point and prayed
for the pastors that were involved in this that God will save their souls as
they need to repent and come to Christ. But beyond that, my question was; what
has God asked them (the pastors) to do? I know that God sets up every
commission for a purpose and if you are pastoring people, there has to be
something that God has told you is the intention of His heart over that
assembly and that’s what you should be complying to.

There is the place for respecting
constituted authority, but it has to be in the Lord (if you get what I mean).

Then I remember the passage of
scripture in the book of Acts 2:46-47;

‘So
continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house
to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising
God and having favor with all the people. And
the LORD added to the church daily those who were being saved’.

And I am wondering that something
is then not right if it is no longer the Lord that adds to His church and
people now have to be paid to add people to the numbers. People are heading in
the wrong direction fast and they are being led there by people who should know
better. The sooner Sons rise up and take their rightful place, the better for
the Kingdom.

My conclusion is simple, “Thou
shalt have no other god besides Me. Thou shalt worship the Lord Your God, and
ONLY Him shalt you serve”. Know this God for yourself lest you be led astray.

Wednesday, 6 September 2017

Very recently, I
shared that the world intends to keep you entertained so that you do not have
time to focus on the thing that is really important. The funny thing is that
majority of the people that folks sit down to watch on TV don’t even have the
time to watch TV themselves. But that’s not what I am discussing today.

The advent of
the internet has brought the private lives of so many people into our bedrooms.
Such that by the flick of a page, you can go from knowing what Sikira had for
breakfast to where Kalu is vacationing and all the weddings that will be coming
up this weekend. Literarily everyone’s life is out there.

Now I don’t have
a problem with this as I do not necessarily have a control over what you decide
to put out there. But as I observe the content that most people put out, I am
prompted to ask the question “Who are
you following on social media?”

If you are not a
follower of Jesus Christ, you can stop reading this post at this point and move
on to other things. But if you are, please get in here and let’s be frank with
each other.

If we are to run
a check on the people you are following on social media, what will we find? What
godly value are the people on your timeline adding to your life? Apostle Paul
said; ‘follow me as I follow Christ’, the people you are following on social
media, are they following Christ?

I hope you know
that you become what/who you follow. You are a sum total of all the people you
are following because they deposit a part of themselves in you. Like it or not,
these things matter.

I banned the
watching of some TV shows in my house because they are not of any eternal value
to either me or the children I am raising and it is not entertainment in any
form. What value is KUWTK adding to the life of a son of God?

These things
might seem trivial to some, but remember that scripture admonishes you to guard
your salvation. See, it is possible for
someone to lose their salvation. There are many people parading themselves
as Christians, but in the reality of it, they have lost their salvation.

You have to be
careful who and what you follow on social media. But while doing that, you also
have to be sure that you are not part of the danger on social media.

“Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever
things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever
things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue
and if there is anything praise worthy – meditate on these things. The things
which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do and the God of
peace will be with you.”

Monday, 31 July 2017

Very recently,
God began to instruct me to send people (new converts, friends, mentees et al)
to some certain assemblies as He directs me while speaking with me. Now as a
pastor over a growing assembly, this is a very hard thing to do. On the one
hand, I am looking at the size of the congregation and asking that God grows
us, but on the other hand, I am sure that He is asking me to send some of these
new converts and friends to other ministries as instructed.

One of the guys
kept asking me for the direction to our assembly and I knew where God needed
him to be, so I gave him the directions to the assembly that God was leading
him to and told him that it was a branch of our ministry. I’m sure he was
shocked as the ministry doesn’t bear the same name as the one I pastor.

More than ever
before, I know for a fact that the Father is seeking for a body that is unified
in purpose not divided along the lines of denomination or religion, but a
unified body of Christ.

There are things
that we have received both individually and as an assembly as pertains to the
heart of the Father in this season and it is amazing to know that all across
the face of the earth, many are receiving the same instructions.

The Father has
stepped out by Himself and the barriers of denominations are broken.

So I committed
myself verbally to Him and agreed that for every time we go out and men are
drawn to the Father, we will commit them unto worthy sons within that vicinity
to disciple them and trust God the He will lead the men whom we are to disciple
to us. So far, the results have blown my mind. Our numbers within my local
assembly are not yet what the Lord showed me, but we have built a network of
brethren all across the nation such that if we were to gather, it will be quite
a big family gathering and the love shared amongst these men is just beyond
words.

I believe that a
new breed of people need to arise, sons whose main drive is to seek the Father
and to do the will of our Master.

Sunday, 2 July 2017

Recently the
Lord began to deal with me on timidity. It didn’t make sense to me at first
because I thought I always said my mind at every point in time however, you
don’t argue with God when He is at work in your life so… I jejely kept learning
my lessons.

First I got into
someone’s office and was talking and the guy kept straining to hear me (now in
my mind, my voice was high, apparently it was only in my mind). The guy had to
ask me to speak up or leave his office (you can imagine the embarrassment).

I left that
office that day wondering what just happened and the Lord pointed me back to
the lessons He was trying to teach me. If you are going to be My voice to the
Nations, times are going to arise when I will need you to confront
issues/people/institutions bigger and greater than you and I will not have you
get there timid.

Thus my journey
to overcoming timidity started, I have been on that path for a while now, some
progress has been made, but that is a journey I may or may not share in the
future however I thought to share one aspect of that journey today.

Remember I said
in one of my recent posts that I have been introspecting. Well, I thought to
trace the history of the timidity and I was surprised by what I found.

Most people in
my generation can relate with being beaten for any and every reason. Some of us
could have been fantastic footballers earning big money if not for the rod of
correction that kept us shielding our skills. I personally was flogged for
everything, just think about it and it was reason enough for my dad to flog
you. My second sister Oma and I had the better share of the beatings. I
remember asking my mum who my dad was as I was convinced that for my dad to
flog me as much as he did, then he wasn’t my real dad.

The cane from
those days partly made me the reasonable man I am today, but it also left some
scars. I realized that the timidity only shows up when there is an authority
figure before me hence anyone that stands in a father figure or office of
authority over me, I tend to stay away from them. This didn’t change the love I
have for them, however an experience from the past had framed the way I viewed
fathers/authority figures. For me, they were to be observed from a distance.

There are some
people in my life, when people hear me talk about them, they wonder how that
can be possible as they never see me around those people. Even I didn’t know
the reason why until God revealed this to me recently.

So, I remembered
a conversation I had with my dad before he went to be with the Lord and he said
to me “Nna, I am so proud of the man you have become. I am convinced that you
will lead many people to Christ and nurture them in the true knowledge of God.
Religion and denomination will draw many away from Christ but if Christ remains
your focus, you will journey farther in Him. Forgive me of my excesses, that
was the only way I knew how to raise you but I know that you now know that I
did all of that in love”.

I remember
telling him that I had forgiven him of all the supposed wrongs he did me and
that I loved him. He held my hands and prayed for me before I came back to
Lagos.

God had to bring
me back here to show me that the thing I was afraid of had a lot of respect for
me. Wow!!!

So today, I
raise a glass to the new bold me, not cowering away in the face of authority,
challenging the things I think should be challenged within limits that I will
set for myself. Saying those things that some are afraid to say, taking up the
assignment that has been laid before me.

Tuesday, 27 June 2017

For a while now,
my prayer has been that God will redeem and save His church. It has been and
still is a burning desire in my heart that the state of the body of Christ
becomes more like what the Master instituted it to be other than the charade it
currently is in most aspects. I have met quite a number of people who are
dissatisfied with the current state of things and have resorted to seeking out
God for themselves and I must confess that fellowshipping with these people, I
can tell that they are indeed finding God. I have also met quite a few people
who are dissatisfied with the current state of things, but for one reason or
the other, are unable to make a move towards discovering what the Truth really
is. You see, scripture wasn’t kidding when it said that you shall know the
Truth, and the Truth shall make you free. Freedom being the key word here.

I for one have
been on a long journey of both self and God discovery, and I understand that it
can be a precarious journey if you travel that path alone. God graciously sent
me men at every turn to either pray with me or fast with me or study with me or
just stay there in the place of worship and soak in His presence. We learnt
together, journeyed together, taught one another and grew (still growing)
together in Him.

I began to
understand the love of God which passes all human understanding. The meaning of
“fellowship of brethren” which must not be forsaken became clearer and more
distinct. We would bump into one another by the roadside or after a meeting and
would spend another 2 to 3 hours sharing and dissecting the word and after each
meeting, there is a burning desire to go back and spend more time in the place
of prayer, study and meditation.

I sense that
there are a couple of people out there who are dissatisfied with what they are
currently being fed in their local assemblies and there is a burning desire, a
yearn in your heart to know more of God. Constantly you try to reach out to Him
and sometimes, He does show up in your local assembly but He’s cut off cos’ the
allotted time for worship is 15mins and the counter has buzzed red and you are
thinking ‘but the Father was just about to step in…’

I know that
feeling, and I would like to help you work through it. By the grace of God, I
discovered platforms and created some platforms that has helped and is still
helping dissatisfied, hungry believers discover God on a whole new level and I
am willing to share information with you if you are willing to reach out.

Please note that
this decision will pull you out of your comfort zone and challenge most things
you have known at the core of your believe system, but it will draw you closer
to the Father and you will discover Him for yourself.

My favourite
scripture John 4:23 But the hour is coming and now is, when the true
worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is
seeking such to worship Him.

There are depths
in glory that are only open to those whom the Father seeks to worship Him. The
burning desire for God in your heart was put there by Him because He is seeking
for you to draw nearer to Him. Come out from the outer courts where the masses
are and enter behind the veil.

Thursday, 8 June 2017

I took a few
days off work to just lay back and evaluate things. You see, it is very easy to
jump from task to task and end up not actually living life. I have had discussions
with a few people who are done with their active work life and are completely
clueless as to what next to do with themselves. Some of these people were high
flyers during their time in active service but right now, in the real world,
they are nobodies.

I sat back
evaluating myself. I love to write, I love to teach and I love to speak. These
three things light me up whenever I’m doing them. Someone once said to me; you
can talk for Africa and I responded that so long as I am talking about Jesus and
the things He has done, then yes, I can go for days doing that.

Sad thing is, as
much as I love to write, I have not written as much as I would have loved to
write. I realise now that I have written more over the last four days than I
have all through this year put together and this drove me to a resolve.

I will write a
minimum of one article every week going forward and speak at least once every
week about Jesus Christ and or other matters as the Lord grants me unction.
When I stick to this, it would mean that in a year, I would have written at
least fifty two articles and spoken to people at least fifty two times. In
doing this, I would also be horning my writing and public speaking skills and
most importantly, I will be living life.

My life’s work
is to help people be the version of themselves that God created them to be and
so help me God, in keeping to my resolve, I will be fulfilling my own purpose.

Think about your
life, where are you today and where can you possibly be?

What can you
commit to today that will bring you closer to where you see yourself to be?

How willing are
you to commit to your resolve?

What will
success look like at the end of the road?

You can share
with me either privately or on this post and I will help you get to the end of
the road by the grace of God.

Saturday, 3 June 2017

A few days ago,
a woman my wife and I really have a lot of respect for came by our home to visit
and see the latest member of the Onyekwere clan. You know there are those
people that every time you see them, they are either churning out revelations
or they are drawing out depths of God from you that are not the norm… bottom
line is, she is an amazing woman after God’s heart and a dear friend of the
family. She shies away from the lime light a lot though the Lord has a way of
always setting her up lolz so I won’t mention her name.

We began to
discuss along the lines of Jesus and His love and what He means and the things
He did etc. and before we knew it, it was almost 2hrs and there was yet so much
more that I knew had been left unsaid.

As she left, I went
back into my closet and began to meditate on the love of Christ.

I know that we
all have a concept of what Christ’s love means to us individually and
collectively, but the more I think about it, the more I really come to the
understanding of what John meant when he wrote “for God so loved the world…”

The love of
Christ is unsearchable, the depths of it is unimaginable, it stretches from
eternity to eternity. And as the reality of the expectations from me in Christ
Jesus begins to dawn on me some more, I realize that I had missed it not
walking in love.

You see, people
will always be people, but I am the one who determines how I respond to people and
truth is I have failed to consistently respond in love. I have responded in
anger, fear, hatred, hurt, disappointment, sadness, happiness and sometimes
love but I have failed to consistently respond in LOVE.

Christ is love
and as He is, so also should I be. Imagine that all who profess the name of the
Lord were to respond consistently in love every time, what a body of Christ we would
have!

So today, I am just
reaching out to as many as are like myself who have realized that they have not
constantly responded in love to re-evaluate themselves and realign to the
nature of Christ.

But it is only natural
and human to respond to your emotions you may say. Well, I have news flash for
you, if you are in Christ Jesus, you are not “human”, you are a life giving
spirit for as He is so also are we in this world… Selah!

I went back to
the Father and asked Him to help me Love unconditionally and He reminded me of
something I heard a while back and I applied that portion of scripture as a
confession over my life. It’s a confession from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8;

Obinnaya suffers
long

Obinnaya is kind

Obinnaya does
not envy

Obinnaya does
not parade himself

Obinnaya is not
puffed up

Obinnaya does
not behave rudely

Obinnaya does
not seek his own

Obinnaya is not
provoked

Obinnaya thinks
no evil

Obinnaya does
not rejoice in iniquity

Obinnaya rejoices
in the truth

Obinnaya bears
all things

Obinnaya believes
all things

Obinnaya hopes
all things

Obinnaya endures
all things

Obinnaya NEVER
FAILS

I constantly
declare these words over myself and I can assure you that I have become a
better version of myself over time. There has been numerous tests to my resolve
to be like Christ always and I can’t tell you that it has been very easy to
stay true but this one thing I can say, it has completely been worth it. The look
on people’s faces when I respond in love even when they have utterly hurt me is
priceless.

The Master is
seeking representatives here on earth, can you become one for Him?

Saturday, 6 May 2017

A couple of days ago, the Lord demanded that I spend more time with Him. To me, He literally sounded like a jealous lover and this had me thinking. You see, I spend an average of 2hrs minimum in His presence daily and to me, that was an above average quality time (all things being equal) but I heard Him say to me that for the depths I’ve begun to touch and enter, much more was required. My schedule has since changed and I cannot even begin to share with you how amazing it has been, it almost feels like floating on thin air #storyforanotherday.

This demand from my Father got me
thinking; on an average, how well does the average professing Christian know
their God?

There are some insights that the
Father will give to me and my question to Him always is; “Lord, what have I then
been doing all this while?” and He just chuckles and continues teaching me. I have
been taught so much of the Lord, yet it still feels like I know so little. The depths
in His glory are sooooo deep and vast, leaves you searching and thirsting for
more.

I have a passion for believers so
when I receive some insights, I most times look at it in comparison to the
average professing believer. So a little question pops in my head; How much
time are you investing in the knowledge of God and fellowship with Him?

Matt 6:21 Luke 12:34 tells us
that where a man’s treasure is, that’s where his heart will be. I belong to
this investment group and I observe with utter amazement (pardon my French) how
driven and hyped up these guys are about making money and I always quietly
wonder if their relationships with God receives half as much of that sort of
attention and ginger.

A look at the things you are
gingered about gives one an insight as to where your treasure really lies.
Jesus in Matt 19 instructed the rich young ruler to go sell his possessions,
give the proceeds to the poor and follow Him. The man walked away sad,
scripture says because he had many possessions. He weighed the option of
walking away from his possessions for Christ and considered it too much a price
to pay so he decided that he rather have his possessions that have Christ. I am
sure we often read that passage and think ‘what a foolish guy’ however, so many
of us today by our actions are doing the exact same thing. When last did you
take a vacation just to spend time with God? Can you cancel a business meeting
just to spend time with God? Can you walk away from your well-paying job just
because God asked you to? Can you shut down your business which you built from
scratch just because God asked you to?

What does this walk with God even
mean to you?

As you go into this new month and
for the rest of your days, I want you to ask yourself; how well am I walking
with God?

Sunday, 9 April 2017

I spent two
weekends in March with my siblings and it gave us some time to gist, catch up
and bond again. One of us was getting married and there is nothing like a celebration
to get us going. Like my wife will say, we too like play.

In all of that
play, I noticed the week before that one of my siblings was sounding a bit
deeper than her usual self. You see as the first of five amazing children and
the “father” of the house as it were, I keep praying and asking God that He
grounds us all in His perfect will for our lives and cause my siblings to
develop the sort of relationship I have with Him or preferably something
deeper. So hearing one of them sound deep drew my attention and caused
something to leap on my inside, I could recognize that there was a change going
on somewhere.

As the
conversations kept going on, we eventually delved into church and allied
matters and then I found out what had changed.

My sister said she
currently never looks forward to Sunday service. That for me was a flag but her
next comments affirmed something that had shifted in me a very long time ago.
Now mind you, she worships with one of the very large assemblies in Nigeria
that have been very instrumental in getting the body of Christ in Nigeria where
it is today.

She said that
however there is this smaller group of people who meet sometime during the week
and she never would miss those meetings for anything in the world. She went
ahead to describe a meeting she missed and how it pained her that she was only
able to attend just one day of the three day meeting. She described with joy
how God gave her a word for the lady beside her and that as she wrote the word
down to pass to the lady, she was not even sure what she was doing as this was
something strange to her.

My dad was a
pastor and we grew up in a Christian home, so we were schooled in the “things”
of the spirit as it were. However, she had prior to this time not really walked
in the fullness of the workings of the gift of the spirit and here she was
giving a word from God to a total stranger. She said that after the service,
the lady came back to hug her and greet her and thank her. You can imagine her
joy and elation.

I can tell you
that my sister is not the same person I hung out with in December for my other
sister’s wedding. The babe is deep now mehn! Something shifted.

As we talked
some more, it became obvious that there was a thirst in her heart for more of
God which wasn’t being met in her local assembly and God decided to fill that
vacuum Himself.

I am aware that
there are so many people out there like my sister who have a burning desire
within them for more of God. People who know that there is more to God than
what is currently obtainable in their local assembly and have been crying out
to God for more of Him. I want to assure you that God sees your heart and will
order your steps aright.

Like I shared
with some folks who met me privately with these questions, some of you want to
leave your local assembly to somewhere else because you feel you are not in the
right place. Before you make that move, ensure that that you should even be
moving in the first instance. Has God instructed you to leave? If He hasn’t,
you MUST stay put until He instructs you (I know how you must feel, trust me
I’ve… been there). David had to stay with Saul though attempts had been made at
his life on several occasions because it wasn’t yet time for him to be crowned
king over Israel, so like David, I advise you stay put.

But some of you
like my sister need to run away from where you currently are. I mean like
seriously run. And don’t give me that nonsense about it being your “family
church”, run for your dear life. There is an assembly where God is looking to
grow you, find them and grow or stay put and die.

I connected with
an assembly of brethren and have made tremendous progress ever since. The
church of God will continue to march on and the gates of hell cannot prevail
against it. You and I are the CHURCH, the assembly we decide to fellowship in
should be aimed towards growing the CHURCH. If you are not growing, then
scripture likens you to the heir who due to him still being a child is under
the care of servants until he/she attains the level of development where they
are able to handle what is rightfully theirs.

As leaders of
assemblies, your major drive should be to grow the CHURCH. When I say grow I
didn’t mean drive to increase number or attendance, NO. I meant growth as in
the people themselves growing.

I am proud of
the people my siblings are becoming and I pray that my God who has led them
this far in Him will continue to grow them Himself.

Tuesday, 21 March 2017

I pastor an
assembly of predominantly young adults and both from observing people and my
personal experiences, I understand the desire and pressure to fit in.

As a teenager, I
received numerous lectures about peer pressure and its effect and I think one
of the reasons I seriously looked forward to growing a beard was to join the
league of men who were big enough to take their own decisions without the influence
of others or being tagged as a small boy; little did I know that it’s a continuous
cycle…

As I grow in God
and become more aware of my environment, I begin to question things around me,
judging them to affirm their alignment with the word of the God. This has
become a favourite past time of mine and its quite interesting spending hours
with God debating on things that I used to know as against how God really sees
them.

That’s not what I’m
writing about today though, but it was on one of such occasions that the Lord
pointed me to the subject of my post today.

For some reason
during one of my quiet times, I picked up my phone and on my timeline I saw the
word “Slay Queen”. The word stayed
with me for a while and since it was my quiet time, I needed to discard the
carnal thought immediately to enable me focus on deep stuff.

I know that slay
queen is a phrase that some ladies use to describe themselves these days and as
hard as I tried, I couldn’t shake off the knowing that the Lord was trying to
tell me something about it. So since my quiet time is for communing with the
Father, I thought that if it was females that He wanted us to discuss today,
then…. So be it.

He asked me to
turn to a passage in scripture:

Proverbs 7:1-27

1 My son, keep my words, and
treasure my commands within you. 2
Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye. 3 Bind them on your finger; write them
on the tablet of your heart. 4 Say
to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your nearest kin, 5 That they may keep you from the
immoral woman, from the seductress who flatters with her words. 6 For at the window of my house I looked
through my lattice, 7 And saw among
the simple, I perceived among the youths, a young man devoid of understanding, 8 Passing along the street near her
corner; and he took the path to her house 9
In the twilight, in the evening, in the black dark night. 10 And there a woman met him, with the attire of a harlot, and a
crafty heart. 11 She was loud and
rebellious, her feet would not stay at home. 12 At times she was outside, at times in the open square, lurking
at every corner. 13 So she caught
him and kissed; with an impudent face she said to him: 14 “I have peace offereings with me; today I have paid my vows. 15 So I came out to meet you,
diligently to seek your face, and I have found you. 16 I have spread my bed with tapestry, coloured coverings of
Egyptian linen. 17 I have perfumed
my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. 18
Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; let us delight ourselves with
love. 19 For my husband is not at
home; He has gone on a long journey; 20
He has taken a bag of money with him, and will come home on the appointed day.”
21 With her enticing speech she
caused him to yield, with her flattering lips she seduced him. 22 Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to slaughter, or as a
fool to the correction off the stocks, 23
Till an arrow struck his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, he did not know
it would cost his life. 24 Now
therefore, listen to me, my children; pay attention to the words of my mouth: 25 Do not let your heart turn aside to
her ways, do not stray into her paths; 26
For as she cast down many wounded, and all
who were slain by her were strong men. 27Her house is the way to hell, descending
to the chambers of death.

Permit me to add
SELAH!

I read this
passage and I was weak. I immediately understood why the phrase stuck with me. The
person that used the line probably was trying to say that she looked
exceptionally beautiful that day, however, because she felt the need to use a
slang that is currently in vogue, she had roped herself into something that had
far much more reaching implications than she was aware of.

I paused and began
to think of all the other things that have either recently or in time past come
into vogue that people have no clue where these things emanated from and for a
need to fit in, people just join the band wagon and blindly follow the trends. What
is a dab? Where did it originate from? What’s a mannequin challenge? To what
end was the usefulness of that challenge? (Let me not go into that one today).

My dear sister,
the next time you consider to address yourself as a slay queen, quickly do
check, Proverbs 7 describes in clear terms the SLAY QUEEN. You could either be
a slay queen or a VIRTUOUS WOMAN
(Proverbs 31), but it is impossible to be both at the same time, so choose!